Tuesday, October 04, 2011

Review: Tim Frazer Again by Francis Durbridge (audio book)

I've previously reviewed an audio book featuring Francis Durbridge's famous creation Paul Temple: Paul Temple and the Madison Mystery in which a writer turns sleuth in the upper end of society. Tim Frazer's isn't quite so high-brow.

Frazer is an engineer who has recently begun working for a secret police/Government department. In this, his second case, he is sent to Amsterdam to shadow Barbara Day. Barbara Day recently ran over and killed a British agent, Leo Salinger, on one of her regular trips to Amsterdam. Was it an accident of something more sinister?

Frazer carries out his assignment and makes an impression. So much so, that when he is back in London he gets embroiled in Barbara's personal and professional life, and when he finds a dead body in her living room, things become quite tricky for him. Even when Frazer has completed his task of finding out whether Salinger was involved in shady dealings or not, he can't let the mystery rest and carries on to the bitter end risking his heart and his life...

This is a complicated story with many twists and turns which kept me hooked. It's action-packed with fights, dangerous men, and a hidden baddie who instils mortal fear in his underlings. Written in the 1960s we see the quaint use of telephone boxes rather than disposable mobile phones. I really enjoyed Tim Frazer Again and Buffy and Merlin's Anthony Head narrates very well with a variety of convincing accents and a low breathy voice for Barbara Day. He also plays Tim Frazer in 2010's The World of Tim Frazer and I'll be looking out for his Paul Temple audio books too.